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Wifi Card/Dongle for Motherboard

AAB

I have Gigabyte B450M DS3H  motherboard. The Graphics Card seems like it will not allow me to use the PCI slot. Can the bottom PCIE slot be used for the graphics card any performance hit?

 

Can I use a USB 3.0 dongle instead of a PCI card? 

Performance hit?

 

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The motherboard doesn't have a pci slot. You probably mean pci-e slots.

 

If you have a very tall / thick video card, then yeah, the other pci-e slots may be blocked.

 

You CAN install the video card in the bottom slot, BUT that slot only works at pci-e x4 speed (even through the size is pci-e x16) so the performance of the video card will be affected.

Most video cards will not be so tall that they would block the 2nd pci-e slot. I think you would be able to insert a wireless network card or something else into the 2nd pci-e slot. Maybe the video card's fans will be partially obstructed by the card, which will result in the fans spinning faster or the video card being a bit hotter or noisier (because fans have to spin faster to keep the card as cool as before)

 

You can insert a pci-e x1 or pci-e x4 card into a bigger slot, if you don't know that. Part of the slot can be empty, unused, pci-e slots are designed like that.

 

There's also the option of buying a pci-e riser cable, if you have a big enough case, you could get a pci-e extension cable and then connect the card outside the area of the motherboard.

example of pci-e x16 extension cable: https://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Gaming-Black-Extender-AC-053-CN1OTN-C1/dp/B06Y5YNGDJ/

 pci-e x1 cables :

https://www.amazon.com/Mustpoint-Express-Extension-Gold-Plated-Connector/dp/B07PMPDGGX/

https://www.amazon.com/GODSHARK-Extender-Extension-Gold-Plated-Connector/dp/B07RWGC441/

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If a riser won't fit then a USB dongle is just fine, however if you have internet that's faster than 15 MB (not Mb) per second then you'll want to get a dongle with USB 3.0 otherwise you're capped by the real life throughput of USB 2.0. On paper it's 480Mbps but in reality is much lower than that. If you do use a dongle I would get one with a cable so you can set the device away from the PC like a shelf or the desk beside it so the case isn't blocking signal.

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https://www.gigabyte.com/in/Motherboard/B450M-DS3H-rev-10#kf

 

PCIE 1x slot will be covered, The graphics card is a 2060 Galax OC, From the looks of it seems like it will cover the 1x slot. I saw a few USB3.0 Wifi Dongles from Netgear. 

Is the latency diff a lot between PCIE1x and USB3.0 slot dongle?

As for the wired connection, exploring that too.

 

 

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4 minutes ago, AAB said:

https://www.gigabyte.com/in/Motherboard/B450M-DS3H-rev-10#kf

 

PCIE 1x slot will be covered, The graphics card is a 2060 Galax OC, From the looks of it seems like it will cover the 1x slot. I saw a few USB3.0 Wifi Dongles from Netgear. 

Is the latency diff a lot between PCIE1x and USB3.0 slot dongle?

As for the wired connection, exploring that too.

 

 

You can plug a pci-e x1 card  or a pci-e x4 card in that bottom pci-e x16 slot.

It will work at x1 or x4 speed.

 

usb wireless cards use more cpu and usually built in antennas with poorer reception, so you get weaker speeds.

pci-e cards usually have antenna connectors and big antennas in the back,,, and if you want you can get antennas with long cables allowing you to position the antennas im better places (sometimes the metal case and the desk can act like obstacles, lowering the signal quality, you then move antenna on top of desk or somewhere which gives you better signal)

ex : https://www.amazon.com/Eightwood-Antenna-Connector-Magnetic-Wireless/dp/B07JVDNDCR/

 

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The bottom is a PCIE x16 running at 4x slot. Will it be an issue for the Galax 2060 1 OC? I will look for the PCIE 16x 4x wifi card. or may be try to see If can make the wired way work...

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It's not an issue.

The video card always gets the full 16 lanes (unless you have a cpu with integrated graphics, in which case you only get 8 pci-e lanes), because that slot is wired directly to the CPU.

 

The bottom pci-e x16 slot receives 4 pci-e lanes from the chipset, which is separate, so it doesn't affect the video card in any way.

 

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okay thanks, meanwhile will try to see If I can move to a wired setup

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